Home-Thoughts, from Abroad
Oh, to be in EnglandNow that April's there,And whoever wakes in EnglandSees, some morning, unaware,That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheafRound the elm-tree hole are in tiny leaf,While the chaffinch sings on the orchard boughIn England--now!
And after April, when May follows,And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedgeLeans to the field and scatters on the cloverBlossoms and dewdrops--at the bent spray's edge--That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,Lest you should think he never could recaptureThe first fine careless rapture!And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,All will be gay when noontide wakes anewThe buttercups, the little children's dower--Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!
Words in this poem
- whoever pron.
- Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
- unaware a.
- Not aware; not noticing; giving no heed; thoughtless; inattentive.
- recapture n.
- The act of retaking or recovering by capture; especially, the retaking of a prize or goods from a captor.
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning, Project Gutenberg ebook #28041; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Browning, Home-Thoughts, from Abroad, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/home-thoughts-from-abroad.html, id L25091.
Form and metre
Home-Thoughts, from Abroad is 20 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCCDD englandA · thereB · englandA · unawareB · sheafC · leafC · boughD · nowD
- 2 AABCBCDDEE-- followsA · swallowsA · hedgeB · cloverC · edgeB · overC · recaptureD · raptureD · dewE · anewE · dower · flower
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, to be in England | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Now that April's there, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And whoever wakes in England | 8 | ·˘/˘··/˘ |
| Sees, some morning, unaware, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Round the elm-tree hole are in tiny leaf, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| In England--now! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And after April, when May follows, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Leans to the field and scatters on the clover | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Blossoms and dewdrops--at the bent spray's edge-- | 10 | /˘········ |
| That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, | 10 | ·········· |
| Lest you should think he never could recapture | 11 | ·····/˘·˘/˘ |
| The first fine careless rapture! | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| All will be gay when noontide wakes anew | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The buttercups, the little children's dower | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| --Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 1
Notes by Myra Reynolds, Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (Project Gutenberg #28041).
- Stanza 2, line 6 That's the wise thrush. The power of these lines in presenting both the musical and the emotional quality of the bird's song is rivaled only by Wilson Flagg's "The Bobolink" (quoted in John Burroughs's Birds and Poets) and Wordsworth's "To the Cuckoo."
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.